Personal computers are known in the current art that are used to read and playback optic and/or magnetic media. These computers, one of which is the Applicant's PCS Educator, use either a keyboard or a pointing device, commonly known as a "mouse", to activate the read and playback functionality of the CD-ROM and have the Personal Computer's monitor as their visual display device.
Also known in the current art is the use of commercial appliances, known as CD-players, to read and playback CD-ROM's. These appliances provide for actuation of the various controls by means of a plurality of pushbuttons, each with a predefined functionality, and have a television set as their visual display device. Inter alia, from European Publication EP-A-453108, is known a CD-player for playing CD-audio and memory disk which comprises a system controller, having a microcomputer, for controlling the entire system, an operating section, for issuing various commands in response to the user's key entries, and an image display controller, associated to a Liquid Crystal Display, for displaying images, such as a map. Such CD-player is able to determine whether the disk to be played is a CD-audio or a memory disk on the basis of identifying information in the TOC (Table Of Contents) of the disk.
The known computers, though they allow reading and playing of CD-ROMs, are of limited performance with respect to the commercial CD-players insofar as they are not apt for reading and playback of all the types of CD-ROM available on the market, nor for use of the television as the preferential visual display device, nor for connection to other magnetic media playback devices, such as video recorders for example. Further, the known computers are difficult for non-expert users to use as they require utilisation of devices, such as the keyboard or mouse, with which domestic users are unfamiliar.
On the other hand, though the CD-players are easy to use, they can only read and playback CD-ROMs and cannot perform any other processing work. In addition, these devices have the drawback that they are not upgradable, so that their performance cannot be improved upon nor can their characteristics be enhanced, for example following introduction of a new type CD-ROM.